Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Belgium and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing LL Cool J to the funk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shoche record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ice-T record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Au Pairs,
Sonic Youth,
Rosa Yemen,
Whodini,
Quadrant,
Bang On A Can,
Jacques Brel,
Ronnie Foster,
Barrington Levy,
Hasil Adkins,
Pussy Galore,
Chris & Cosey,
Skriet,
Rakim,
Reagan Youth,
The Fugs,
Eddi Front,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Trojans,
Joensuu 1685,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Ohio Players,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Funky Four + One,
Flamin' Groovies,
Tomorrow,
Lower 48,
Delon & Dalcan,
Yellowson,
Arab on Radar,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Mojo Men,
Organ,
the Soft Cell,
Swans,
T. Rex,
Khruangbin,
The Selecter,
Cameo,
John Cale,
FM Einheit,
Ultimate Spinach,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Joyce Sims,
Yusef Lateef,
Excepter,
Terry Callier,
The Angels of Light,
Fear,
Ultravox,
the Human League,
Eurythmics,
Black Sheep,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Silicon Teens,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Five Americans,
Q and Not U,
Duran Duran,
Adolescents,
Mark Hollis,
Bad Manners, Bad Manners, Bad Manners, Bad Manners.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.